Mangrove Park Kapuk, A Cityscape

Living a city life in an urban jungle is probably a dream for some people. Here, everything needs to be maintained short, concise and practical. Jakarta is a very busy place where traffic is nothing but an every now-and-then sight. That said, an escape from the hectic life of the city is a medicine to maintain sanity, at least my sanity.

I personally love the greenery and love to be lost in it. Jungle is my most ideal place where I could spend hours and hours doing nothing. Letting myself soaking up in its serenity. Jakarta, unfortunately, doesn't have many green space for public. Very few of them we can enjoy as a leisure in the city.

I firstly heard someone dropped the name of Mangrove Park few years back then but I didn't really have the chance to give it a visit. I can never really think Jakarta could give me solace, hence traveling out of the city is always my first option. Let alone the fact that the word "park + jakarta" never comes out very fulfilling to my utopian idea of a getaway.

It was two weeks a go when I decided to go there just for a short escape from my busy week. My friends and I went there by a motor bike. Scooter is always the best option to maintain punctuality and to save your energy if nothing else. After 20 minutes driving, we reached this place. Entrance fee is Rp 25.000,- and 10 times will be charged if you are a foreigner.

I sincerely came to this place with no expectation and yet it exceeds it. The place is a wonderful cityscape. Situated in Pantai Indah Kapuk by the shore, this park is an easy finding and covers a pretty vast area. Even though a minor part of this place is still covered in dirt road and trash is ubiquitous but the park is a beauty.

Birds are easy to find here, flying freely above your heads from one tree to another is a rare sight in Jakarta. I didn't expect to see many people because it was on weekdays where I thought this place would be less crowded. It's not.

The place offers several entertainment apart from enjoying the nature itself. You can rent a canoe to explore the water in the area. There are various type of canoes you can choose (which is different in their capacity). Bird watching towers and you can also sleep in one of their camp huts. I wonder what it feels like to sleep in one of those beautiful camps. They blend very well with its surrounding. I might hear frogs or crickets in the night. I might.

There's an outbound ground as well, a cafe, and a place where you can plant the seed. Walk farther deeper you can reach the beach. They have this small gazebo, the farthest point of the place where you can enjoy the beach view. We all know that Jakarta doesn't have the most beautiful beach, so I wasn't expecting it to be exceptionally outstanding.

The best part for me is the alleyway where these trees emerge from the swamp on both sides and make an arch shade, almost magical.

Jakarta, apart from its inadequate green space, has a lovely cityscape. This may not be suffice to quench my thirst of vitamin green but this is a good start for Jakarta. Someday, maybe someday we will find ourselves lost in Jakarta greenery not in its traffic.

Any day but the weekends or public holidays should do I guess. It was crowded, yes. But you probably gotta come in the afternoon. People are mostly coming here in the morning because the lighting is good for photography or late in the afternoon for the sunset. Just avoid the afternoon I guess, morning should do better.